Cross Breeds

Aside from Sea Horses, what other animals have sex changes?

Ok, actually male sea horses are impregnated by female eggs but that is even weirder than a sex change... And we've all seen the neighbor's gay dog... What other sexually unique animals are there?

Public Comments

1. Penguins Earthworms or "fishing worms"------ They dont have male and female ones
2. uhh lets see how you do when i give you a sex change please respond by answering all of my sexy questions
3. i think jay is right
4. Some frogs can apparently change sex (that wasn't just a line in Jurassic Park, it's really true).
5. Most angelfish species are born female, then the stronger ones of the school becomes male. Same w parrotfish. http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/angelfishes.htm Whiptail lizards and many other reptile species (recently seen in an anaconda, but don't remember which zoo) are capable of reproducing without the need for a male. In fact, there are no whiptail lizards that are male!!! they do need to mate to stimulate ovulation w each other, tho http://members.aol.com/Attic21/CreatureofDay/whip.html In alligators and other reptiles, temperature during incubation of the eggs determine the sex of the hatchlings. Cooler temps will produce females, hotter temps will only produce males. (don't have a link, but you may find that in wikipedia). Yes, Jurassic park was right in that some species of frogs do change sex when there aren't enough boys around. Cats, camels, ferrets, and rabbits need to mate to induce ovulation, otherwise they go through heat but not a single egg will be shed, while most species of animals will ovulate regardless of the presence of a male or not. In one species of praying mantis (Mantis religiosa) the male has to be decapitated for him to ejaculate. If the female doesn't eat the male, no fertilization will occur. Along the same lines of cannibalism, redback spiders actually offer themselves to the females and facilitate to be eaten while mating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-back_spider#Reproduction Those are the most interesting ones I can think of now....
6. I think tapeworms do that too. Maybe they are asexual and they have sex with they're own bodies. I might be wrong. Certain species of fish, although I can't remember which.
7. Oysters: There is no way of determining male oysters from females by examining their shells. While oysters have separate sexes, they may change sex one or more times during their life span. The gonads, organs responsible for producing both eggs and sperm, surround the digestive organs and are made up of sex cells, branching tubules and connective tissue. SHRIMP: It is well known that many fish species can change sex, but I only recently found that many crustaceans also changed sex. Many species of shrimp change their sex from male to female. And more recent study showed that some caridean shrimp of the genus Lysmata had the unique sexual system that was simultaneous hermaphroditism (Lin and Zhang, 2001; Fiedler, 1998). Some individuals matured as male and developed into hermaphrodite when grew to a certain size or age, while others remained unisexual. The hermaphroditic shrimp can mate as a male and also can mate as a female. AND MANY OTHER SPECIES OF AQUATIC LIFE: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20031027/sexchange.html